Development of Doctrine of Infant Baptism
Transcript of Development of Doctrine of Infant Baptism
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THE
Development of the Doctrine
of Infant Salvation.
BY
BENJAMIN B. WARFIELD, D.D.
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tibxaxy of 1:he
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THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE DOCTRINE
OF INFANT SALVATION.
BY
/BENJAMIN B. WARFIELD,Professor in Princeton Seminary.
:
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Copyright, 1891, by
THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE CO.,
New York.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Page.
I. The Patristic Doctrine, ... 5Infants need salvation, p. 6 ; Bap-tism necessary to salvation, p. 6 ;Augustine, p. 7.
II. The Medieval Mitigation, . 9The inherited doctrine, p. 9 ;Scholastic doctrine of poenaclamni, p. 10 ; Attempt to applybaptism of intention, p. 11 ; Wy-cliffe, p. 13.
III. The Teaching of the Churchof Home, 13
Four opinions, p. 13 ; Tridentmedoctrine, p. 14 ; Attempt to ap-ply intention rejected, p. IT ;Modern Pelagianizing views, p.19.
IV. The Lutheran Doctrine, . . 22Protestant doctrine of theChurch, p. 23 ; Doctrine of Augs-burg Confession, p. 24 ; Bap-tism of intention recognized, p.24 Gerhard's teaching 2ti
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IV TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Page.
V. Anglican Views, 32
Early form of the Articles, p.32 ; Hooper, p. 33 ; Scrivener,
p. 34 ; Wall, p. 34 ; Presentstate of opinion, p. 35.
VI. The Reformed Doctrine, . . 35Roots of the doctrine, p. 36 ;Zwingli's teaching, p. 37 ; Five
opinions, p. 38 : 1. All dying in-
fants saved, p. 38 ; 2. Uncertain-
ty as to all, p. 39 ; 3. All cove-
nanted infants saved, p. 40 ; 4.
All covenanted and some otherssaved, p. 41 ; 5. Agnostic as to
uncovenanted, p. 42 ; The Re-formed Confessions, p. 44 ; Syn-od of Dort, p. 44 ; Westminster
Assembly, p. 46 ; Modern Cal-vinism, p. 48.
VII. Ethical Tendencies, . . 50Early Pelagianizing, p. 51 ; Re-monstrantism, p. 51 ; WesleyanArminianism, p. 53 ; The logicaloutcome, p. 54 ; Post-mortemprobation, p. 55 ; Dr. Kedney,
p. 56.
VIII. The Doctrinal Development, 57
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DOCTRINEOF INFANT SALVATION.
The task which we set before us in thisbrief paper is not to unravel the history of
opinion as to the salvation of infants dying
in infancy, but the much more circumscribedone of tracing the development of doctrine
on this subject. We hope to show thatthere has been a doctrine as to the salvation
of infants common to all ages of the Church;
but that there has also been in this, as in
other doctrines, a progressive correction ofcrudities in its conception, by which thetrue meaning and relations of the commonteaching have been freed from deformingaccretions and its permanent core broughtto purer expression.
1. It is fundamental to the very concep-tion of Christianity that it is a remedial
scheme. Christ Jesus came to save sinners.The first Christians had no difficulty inunderstanding and confessing that Christ
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6 THE DOCTRINE OF
infants were admitted into this citizenship
they did not question ; Irenaeus, for exam-
ple, finds it appropriate that Christ was
born an infant and grew by natural stages
into manhood, since he came to save all
by himself all, I say, who by him are bornagain unto God, infants and children, and
boys and young men, and old men/' and
accordingly passed through every age that
he might sanctify all. Nor did they ques-
tion that not the naturalbirth of the flesh,
but the new birth of the Spirit was the sole
gateway for infants too, into the kingdom ;communion with God was lost for all alike,
and to infants too it was restored only in
Christ.* Less pure elements, however, en-
tered almost inevitably into their thought.
The ingrained externalism of both Jewish
and heathen modes of conception, when
brought into the Church wrought naturally
toward the identification of the kingdom of
Christ with the external Church,and of re-
generation with baptism. Already in Jus-
tin and Irenaeus, the word regeneration
means baptism ; the Fathers uniformly
understand John iii. 5 of baptism. The
maxim f th P t i ti g thus became
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INFANT SALVATION.
necessity of means ; and as a corollary, no
unbaptized infant could be saved. Howearly this doctrine of the necessity of bap-
tism became settled in the Church is diffi-
cult to trace in the paucity of very early
witnesses. Tertullian already defends it
from objection.* The reply of Cyprian and
his fellow-bishops to Fidus on the duty of
early baptism, presupposes it.f After that,
it was plainly the Church-doctrine ; and
althoughit was mitigated in the case of
adults by the admission not only of the bap-
tism of blood, but also that of intention,^
the latter mitigation was not allowed in the
case of infants. The whole Patristic
Church agreed that, martyrs excepted, no
infant dying unbaptized could enter the
kingdom of heaven.
The fairest exponent of the thought of
the age on this subject is Augustine, who
was called upon to defend it against the
Pelagian error that infants dying unbaptized,
while failing of entrance into the kingdom,
yet obtain eternal life. His constancy in
this controversy has won for him the un-
enviable title of clurus infantum pater designation doubly unjust in that not only
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8 THE DOCTRINE 0#
did he neither originate the obnoxious dog-
ma nor teach it in its harshest form, but hewas even preparing its destruction by the
doctrines of grace, of which he was more
truly the father.* Augustine expressed the
Church-doctrine moderately, teaching, of
course, that infants dying unbaptized would
be found on Christ's left hand and be con-
demned to eternal punishment, but also notforgetting to add that their punishment
would be the mildest of all, and indeed thatthey were to be beaten with so few stripes
that he could not say it would have been
better for them not to be born. \ No doubt,others of the Fathers softened the doctrine
even below this ; some of the Greeks, for
instance, like Gregory Nazianzen, thought
that unbaptized infants' i
are neither glori-
fied nor punished i.e., of course, go into a
middle state similar to that taught by
Pelagius.J; But it is not to Augustine, but
to Fulgentius (f 533), or to Alcimus Avitus(f 525), || or to Gregory the Great (f 604) f
* Compare The Post-Mcene Fathers, edited by Dr. Schaff,
vol. v. (Augustin's Anti-Pelagian Treatises), p. lxx.
t Augustine's doctrine is most strongly expressed in Sermo
xiv. In De Peccat. Merit., c. 21 (xvi.), and Contra Julian., v.,
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INFANT SALVATION.
to whom we must go for the strongest ex-pression of the woe of imbaptized infants.
Probably only such anonymous objectorsas those whom Tertullian confutes,* or suchobscure and erratic individuals as Vincentius
Victor whom Augustine convicts, in thewhole Patristic age, doubted that the king-
dom of heaven was closed to all infants de-parting this life without the sacrament of
baptism.
2. If the general consent of a whole age
as expressed by its chief writers, including
the leading bishops of Kome, andbyitssynod-ical decrees, is able to determine a doctrine,
certainly the Patristic Church transmittedto the Middle Ages as de fide that infants
dying unbaptized (with the exception onlyof those who suffer martyrdom) are not onlyexcluded from heaven, but doomed to hell.Accordingly the mediaeval synods so define
;
the second Council of Lyons and the Coun-cil of Florence declare that the souls ofthose who pass away in mortal sin or in orig-inal sin alone descend immediately to hell,
to be punished, however, with unequal pen-
alties. On the maxim that gradus nonmutant speciem we must adjudge Petavius's
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10 THE DOCTRINE OF
anoe determines tiie punisnment ot un bap-
tized infants to be the same in kind (in the
same hell) with that of adults in mortal sin : So infants are tormented with unequal
tortures of fire, but are tormented neverthe-
less/' Nevertheless scholastic thought onthe subject was characterized by a success-
ful effort to mollify the harshness of the
Church-doctrine, under the inrpulse of the
prevalent semi-Pelagian conception of orig-
inal sin. The whole troup of schoolmenunite in distinguishing bet ween poena damni
and poena sensus, and in assigning to infants
dying unbaptized only the former i.e., the
loss of heaven and the beatific vision, and
not the latter i.e., positive torment. They
differ among themselves only as to whetherthis poena damni, which alone is the lot of
infants, is accompanied by a painful sense
of the loss (as Lombard held), or is so neg-ative as to involve no pain at all, either ex-
ternal or internal (as Aquinas argued). So
complete a victory was won by this mollifi-cation that perhaps only a single theologian
of eminence can be pointed to who venturedstill to teach the doctrine of Augustine and
Gregory Gregory Ariminensis thence call-
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INFANT SALVATTON. 11
of his readers. * Dante, whom Andrew Sethnot unjustly calls by far the greatest dis-ciple of Aquinas, has enshrined in his im-mortal poem the leading conception of hisday, when he pictures the young childreninnocent, whom Death's sharp teeth havesnatched ere yet they were freed from thesin with which our birth is blent/' as im-prisoned within the brink of hell, wherethe first circle girds the abyss of dread, in
a place where
there is no sharp agonybut dark shadows only, and whence noother plaint rises than that of sighs whichfrom the sorrow without pain arise. f Thenovel doctrine attained papal authority by adecree of Innocent III. (c. 1200), who de-termined the penalty of original sin to bethe lack of the vision of God, but the pen-alty of actual sin to be the torments ofeternal hell.
A more timid effort was also made in this
period to modify the inherited doctrine bythe application to it of a development of thebaptism of intention. This tendency first
appears in Hincmar of Rheims (f 882), who,in a particularly hard case of interdict on awhole di th h h h
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12 THE DOCTRINE OF
faith and godly desire of the parents and
godfathers of the infants who had thnsdied unbaptized, who in sincerity desiredbaptism for them but obtained it not, mayprofit them by the gift of Him whose spirit(which gives regeneration) breathes where
it pleases. It is doubtful, however,
whether he would have extended this lofty
doctrine to any less stringent case.* Cer-
tainly no similar teaching is met with in the
Church, except with reference to the pecul-iarly hard case of still-born infants of Chris-
tian parents. The schoolmen {e.g., Alex-
ander Hales and Thomas Aquinas) admitted
a doubt whether God may not have waysof saving such unknown to us. John Ger-son, in a sermon before the Council of Con-
stance, presses the inference more boldly, fGod, he declared, has not so tied the mercy
of his salvation to common laws and sacra-ments, but that without prejudice to his law
he can sanctify children not yet born, by thebaptism of his grace or the power of the
Holy Ghost. Hence, he exhorts expectant
parents to pray that if the infant is to die
before attaining baptism, the Lord may
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INFANT SALVATION. 13
that he only intends to suggest that all hopeis not taken away ; for there is no certaintywithout a revelation. Gabriel Biel (f 1495)followed in Gerson's footsteps,* holding it
to be accordant with God's mercy to seek
out some remedy for such infants. Thisteaching remained, however, without effect
on the Church-dogma, although somethingsimilar to it was, among men who servedGod in the way then called heresy, fore-shadowing an
evenbetter to
come. JohnWycliffe (f 1384) had already with like cau-tion expressed his unwillingness to pro-
nounce damned such infants as were in-tended for baptism by their parents, if theyfailed to receive it in fact ; though he couldnot, on the other hand, assert that they weresaved, f His followers were less cautious,
whether in England or Bohemia, and inthis, too, approved themselves heralds of abrighter day.
3. In the upheaval of the sixteenthcentury
the Church of Rome found her task in har-monizing under the influence of the scholas-tic teaching, the inheritance which the some
what inconsistent past had bequeathed her.Four varieties of opinion sought a place in
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14THE DOCTRINE OF
fants dying unbaptized suffer eternally the
pains of sense, found again advocates, and
that especially among the greatest of her
scholars, such as Noris, Petau, Driedo,
Conry, Berti. At the other extreme, aPelagianizing doctrine that excluded unbap-
tized infants from the kingdom of heaven
and the life promised to the blessed, and yet
accorded to them eternal life and natural
happiness in a place between heaven and
hell, was advocated by such great leaders as
Ambrosius Catharinus, Albertus Pighius,
Molina, Sfondrati. The mass, however,
followed the schoolmen in the middle path
of parna damni, and, like the schoolmen,
only differed as to whether the punishmentof loss involved sorrow (as Bellarmine held)
or was purely negative.* The Council of
Trent (1545) anathematized those who affirm
that the sacraments of the new law are
not necessary to salvation, and that without
them or an intention of them men obtain. . . the grace of justification ; or,
again, that baptism is free that is, isnot necessary to salvation.
: This is ex-
plained by the Tridentine Catechism to mean
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INFANT SALVATION. 15
through the grace of baptism, they are bornto everlasting misery and destruction,whether their parents be believers or un-believers ; while, on the other hand, weare credibly informed * that the council wasnear anathematizing as a Lutheran heresythe proposition that the penalty for originalsin is the fire of hell. The Council ofTrent at least made renewedly de fide thatinfants dying unbaptized incurred damna-tion,
though it left the way open for discus-sion as to the kind and amount of their pun-ishment,
f
The Tridentine deliverance, of course,does not exclude the baptism of blood as asubstitute for baptism of water. Neitherdoes it seem necessarily to exclude the ap-plication of a theory of baptism of intentionto infants. Even after it, therefore, a two-fold development seems to have been possi-ble. The path already opened by Gersonand Biel
might have been followed' out, anda baptism of intention developed for infantsas well as for adults. This might even havebeen pushed on logically, so as to cover thecase of all infants dying in infancy. On theprinciple argued by Ri h d k
\*
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16 THE DOCTRINE OF
ample, that the unavoidable failure of bap-
tism in the case of Christian children can-
not lose them salvation, because of the pre-sumed desire and purpose of baptism forthem in their Christian parents and in the
Churchof
God,reasoners
might havepro-
ceeded only a single step further and have
said that the desire and purpose of Mother
Church to baptize all is intention of baptismenough for all dying in helpless infancy.
Thus on Eoman principles a salvation for alldying in infancy might be logically deduced,and infants, as more helpless and less guilty,
be given the preference over adults. Onthe other hand, it might be argued that as
baptism either in re or in voto must medi-
ate salvation, and as infants by reason oftheir age are incapable of the intention, they
cannot be saved unless they receive it in
fact,* and thus infants be discriminated
against in favor of adults. This second path
is the one which has been actually followed
by the theologians of the Church of Rome,with the ultimate result that not only are in-
fants discriminated against in favor of
adults, but the more recent theologians seem
almost ready to discriminate against the in-
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INFANT SALVATION. 1?
fants of Christians as over against those ofthe heathen.*
The application of the baptism of inten-
tion to infants was not abandoned, however,
without some protest from the more tender-
hearted. Cardinal Cajetan defended in the
Council of Trent itself Gerson's proposition
that the desire of godly parents might be
taken in lieu of the actual baptism of chil-
dren dying in the womb.f Cassander (1570)
encouraged parents to hope and pray for
children so dying. J; Bianchi (1768)holds
that such children may be saved per obla-
* This grows out of the development of the doctrines of igno-
rance and invincible ignorance, the latter of which was au-
thoritatively defined by Pope Pius IX. in his Encyclicaladdress-
ed to the Bishops of Italy. August 10, 1863. See an interesting
statement concerning it in Newman's A Letter to the Duke ofNorfolk, on the Infallibility of the Pope. Thus while an abso-lute necessity for baptism in re is posited for the infants of
even Christian parents, even though they die in the womb, on
the other hand, as the law of baptism is in force only where it
is known, and even an ignorance morally invincible (as among
sectaries) is counted true ignorance, not even an intention of
baptism is demanded of the heathen or of certain sectaries.
Gousset, Theolog. Dogmat., 10 ed., Paris, 1866, i., 548, 549,
351, ii., 382, may be profitably consulted in this connection.Among the heathen thus the old remedies for sin are still prob-ably valid ; St. Bernard says (quoted approvingly by Gousset),
Among the Gentiles as many as are found faithful, we believe
that the adults are expiated by faith and the sacrifices ; but
the faith of the parents profits the children, nay, even suffices
for them. ,, If the fathers are saved, why not the children ?d i womb b id be
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18 THE DOCTRINE OF
tionem pueri quam Deo mater extrinsecusfaciat.* Eusebius Amort (1758) teachesthat God may be moved by prayer to grantjustification to such extra-sacramentally. fEven somewhat bizarre efforts have been
made to escape the sad conclusion proclaimedby the Church. Thus Klee holds that a
lucid interval is accorded to infants in the
article of death, so that they may conceivethe wish for baptism. \ An obscure Frenchwriter supposes that they may, shut up in
their mother's womb, know God, love him,and have the baptism of desire. A moreobscure German conceives that infants re-
main eternally in the same state of rational
development in which they die, and hence
enjoy all they are capable of ;if
they die inthe womb they either fall back into theoriginal force from which they were pro-
duced, or enjoy a happiness no greater than
that of trees.||
These protests of the heart
have awakened, however, no response in the
Church,^ which has preferred to hold fast
* De Remedio . . . pro parentis.
t Theolog. Moral., ii., xi., 3.
X Dog. iii., 2, 1.
De la Marne, Traite metaphysique des Dogmes de laTrinite, etc., Paris, 182(5.
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INFANT SALVATION . 19
to the dogma that the failure of baptism ininfants, dying such, excludes ipso facto fromheaven, and to seek its comfort in mitigat-
ing still farther than the scholastics them-selves the nature of t\v&t poena damni whichalone it allows as punishment of original sin.
And if we may assume that such writers asPerrone, Hurter, Gousset, and Kendrick aretypical of modern Roman theology through-out the world, certainly that theology maybe said to have come, in this pathway ofmitigation, as near to positing salvation for
all infants dying unbaptized as the rather
intractable deliverances of early popes andlater councils permit to them. They allteach, of course (as the definitions of Flor-
ence and Trent require of them) in thewords of Perrone* that children of thiskind descend into hell, or incur damnation ;but (as Hurter saysf), although all Cath-olics agree that infants dying without bap-
tism are excluded from the beatific visionand so suffer loss, are lost (pati
damnum,damnari) ; they yet differ among them-selves in their determination of the nature
and condition of the state into which suchinfants pass. As the idea of damnationmay thus be softened to a mere failure to at
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20 THE DOCTRINE OF
to that of a natural paradise. Hurter him-self is inclined to a somewhat severer doc-
trine ; but Perrone (supported by such great
lights as Balmes, Berlage, Oswald, Lessius,
and followed not afar off by Gousset and
Kendrick) reverts to the Pelagianizing view
of Oatharinus and Molina and Sfondrati
which Petau called a fabrication cham-
pioned indeed by Oatharinus but originated by Pelagius the heretic/' and which Bel-
larmine contended was contra fidemand
teaches that unbaptized infants enter into astate deprived of all supernatural benefits,
indeed, but endowed with all the happiness
of which pure nature is capable. Their
state is described as having the nature of
penalty and of damnation when conceived
of relatively to the supernatural happiness
from which they are excluded by original
sin ; but when conceived of in itself and ab-
solutely, it is a state of pure nature, and ac-
cordingly the words of Thomas Aquinas are
applied to it : They are joined to God byparticipation in natural goods, and so also
can rejoice in natural knowledge and love. *
Thus, after so many ages, the Pelagian con-
ception of the middle state for infants has
d i
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INFANT SALVATION. 21
ted that thisis
areturn to Pelagianism ;
Perrone, for example, argues that Pelagius
held the doctrine of a natural beatitude for
infants as one unrelated to sin, while
Catholic theologians hold it with the death
of sin ; so that the exclusion from the beatific
vision has the nature of penalty and of dam-nation proceeding from sin. * Is there
more than a verbal difference here ? At all
events, whatever difference exists is a dif-
ference not in the doctrine of the state of
unbaptized infantsafter death, but in the
doctrine of the fall. In deference to the
language of fathers and councils and popes,
this natural paradise is formally assigned to
that portion of the other world designated
hell, but in its own nature it is precisely
the Pelagian doctrine of the state of unbap-
tized infants after death. By what expedi-
ent such teaching is to be reconciled with
the other doctrines of the Church of Rome,
or with its former teaching on this same
subject, or withits boast of semper eadem,
is more interesting to its advocates within
that communion than to us.f Our interest
as historians of opinion is exhausted in
simply noting the fact that the Pelagianiz-
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22 THE DOCTRINE OF
ing process, begun in the Middle Ages byassigning to infants guilty only of original
sin liability to poena damni alone, culminatesin our day in their assignment by the most
representative theologians of modern Rometo a natural paradise.
4. It is, no doubt, as a protest against the
harshness of the Romanist syllogism, Noman can attain salvation who is not a mem-ber of Christ ; but no one becomes a mem-ber of Christ except by baptism, received
either in re or in voto, * that this Pelagian-
izing drift is to be regarded. Its fault is
that it impinges by way of mitigation andmodification on the major premise, which,
however, is the fundamental proposition of
Christianity. Its roots are planted, in the
last analysis, in a conception of men, not as
fallen creatures, children of wrath, and de-
serving of a doom which can only be escapedby becoming members of Christ, but as
creatures of God with claims on him fornatural happiness, but, of course, with noclaims on him for such additional supernat-ural benefits as he may yet lovingly conferon his creatures in Christ. On the otherhand, that great religious movement which
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INFANT SALVATION. 23
principle of which was its revised doctrineof the Church, ranged itself properly
against the fallacious minor premise, and
easily broke its bonds with the sword of the
word. Men are not constituted members ofChrist through the Church, but members
of the Church through Christ ; they are
not made the members of Christ by baptism
which the Church gives, but by faith, the
gift of God ; and baptism is the Church's
recognition of this inner fact. The full
benefit of this better apprehension of thenature of that Church of God membership
in which is the condition of salvation, was
not reaped, however, by all Protestants in
equal measure. It was the strength of the
Lutheran movement that it worked out its
positions not theoretically or all at once, but
step by step, as it was forced on by the logic
of events and experience. But it was an in-
cidental evil that, being compelled to ex-
press its faith early, its first confession was
framed before the full development of Prot-estant thought, and subsequently contracted
the faith of Lutheranism into too narrow
channels. The Augsburg Confession con-
tains the true doctrine of the Church as thei d
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24 THE DOCTRINE OF
sense that children are not saved withoutbaptism (Art. IX.),* inasmuch as the con-
demnation and eternal death brought by
original sin upon all are not removed except
from those who are born again by baptismand the Holy Ghost (Art. II.) i.e., to the
doctrine that the necessity of baptism is the
necessity of means. In the direction of
mollifying interpretation of this deliverance,
the theologians urge : 1. That the necessity
affirmed is not absolute but ordinary, and
binds man and not God. 2. That as the as-sertion is directed against the Anabaptists,
it is not the privation, but the contempt of
baptism that is affirmed to be damning. 3.
That the necessity of baptism is not intended
to be equalized with that of the Holy Ghost.
4. That the affirmation is not that for orig-
inal sin alone any one is actually damned,
but only that all are therefor damnable.
There is force in these considerations. But
they do not avail wholly to relieve the
Augsburg Confession of limiting salvationto those who enjoy the means of grace, and
as concerns infants, to those who receive
the sacrament of baptism.
It is not to be held, of course, that it asserts
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INFANT SALVATION. 25
From Luther and Melanchthon down, Lu-theran theologians have always taught what
Hunnins expressed in the Saxon Visitation
Articles : Unless a person be born again
of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of heaven. Cases of necessity
are not intended, however, bij this.''' Luther-
an theology, in other words, takes its stand
positively on the ground of baptism of in-
tention as applied to infants, as over against
its denial by the Church of Rome. Lu-
ther, says Dorner,*
holds fast, in general,to the necessity of baptism in order to salva-
tion, but in reference to the children of
Christians who have died unbaptized, hesays : ' The Holy and Merciful God will
think kindly of them. What he will dowith them he has revealed to no one, that
baptism may not be despised, but has re-served to his own mercy ; God does wrongto no man.' \ From the fact that Jewishchildren dying before circumcision were not
lost, Luther argues that neither are Chris-tian children dying before baptism ;J and he
comforts Christian mothers of still-born
babes by declaring that they should under-
stand that such infants are saved. 8 So
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26 THE DOCTRINE OF
Bugenhagen, under Luther's direction,
teaches that Christians' children intended for
baptism are not left to the hidden judgment
of God if they fail of baptism, but have thepromise of being received by Christ into his
kingdom. * It is not necessary to quote laterauthors on a point on which all are unani-
mous ; let it suffice to add only the clear
statement of the developed Lutheranism of
John Gerhard (1610-22) : f We walk inthe middle way, teaching that baptism is,
indeed, the ordinary sacrament of initiation
and means of regeneration necessary to all,
even to the children of believers, for regen-
eration and salvation ; but vet that in the
event of privation or impossibility the chil-
dren of Christians are saved by an ex-traordinary and peculiar divine dispensation.
For the necessity of baptism is not absolute,
but ordinary ; we on our part are obliged to
the necessity of baptism, but there must be
no denial of the extraordinary action of Godin infants offered to Christ by pious parents
and the Church in prayers, and dying be-
fore the opportunity of baptism can be given
them, since God does not so bind his grace
and saving efficacy to baptism as that, in
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INFANT SALVATIOX. 27
the event of privation, he may not both wishand be able to act extraordinarily. We dis-tinguish, then, between necessity on God'spart and on our part ; between the case ofprivation and the ordinary way ; and alsobetween infants
born in the Church and outof the Church. Concerning infants bornout of the Church, we say with the apostle(1 Cor. v. 12, 13), ' For what have I to dowith judging them that are without ? Donot you judge them that are within ? For
them that are without God judgeth.'Wherefore, since there is no promise con-cerning them, we commit them to God'sjudgment ; and yet we hold to no place in-termediate between heaven and hell, con-cerning which there is
utter silence in Scrip-ture. But concerning infants born in theChurch we have better hope. Pious parentsproperly bring their children as soon as pos-sible to baptism as the ordinary means of re-generation, and offer them in baptism toChrist ; and those who are negligent in this,so as through lack of care or wicked con-tempt for the sacrament to deprive theirchildren of baptism, shall hereafter render
a very heavy account to God, since they have
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28 THE DOCTRINE OE
mothers' wombs or by some sudden accidentbefore they receive baptism, but mayrather hold that the prayers of pious par-
ents, or, if the parents are negligent of this,
the prayers of the Church, poured out for
these infants, are clemently heard and they
are received by God into grace and life.From this passage, too, we may learn the
historical attitude of Lutheranism toward
the entirely different question of the fate
of infants dying outside the pale of the
Church and the reach of its ordinances, amultitude so vast that it is wholly unreason-
able to suppose them simply (like Christians'
children deprived of baptism) exceptions to
the rule laid down in the Augsburg Confes-sion. It is perfectly clear that the Lu-
theran Confessions extend no hope for them.
It is doubtful whether it can even be said
that they leave room for hope for them.
Melanchthon in the Apology is no doubt
arguing against the Anabaptists, and intends
to prove only that children should be bap-tized ; but his words in explanation of Art.
IX. deserve consideration in this connec-
tion also where he argues that the prom-ise of salvation does not pertain to those
h h h h
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INFANT SALVATION. 29
only with the Word and the Sacraments.Luther's personal opinion as to the fate ofheathen children dying in infancy is indoubt ; now he expresses the hope that thegood and gracious God may have somethinggood in view for them ;* and again, thoughleaving it to the future to decide, he onlyexpects something milder for them than forthe adults outside the Church ;f andBugenhagen, under his eye, contrasts thechildren of Turks and Jews with those of
Christians, as not sharers in salvation be-cause not in Christ. J From the very firstthe opinion of the theologians was dividedon the subject. (1) Some held that all in-fants except those baptized in fact or inten-tion are lost, and ascribed to them, of coursefor this was the Protestant view of thedesert of original sin both privative andpositive punishment. This party includedsuch theologians as Quistorpius, Calovius,Fechtei, Zeibichius, Buddeus. (2) Others
judged that we may cherish the best of hopefor their salvation. Here belong Dann-hauer, Hulsemann, Scherzer, J. A. Osian-der, Wagner, Musaeus, Cotta, and Spener.But the great body of Lutherans, including
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30 THE DOCTRINE OF
Baldwin, Bechmann, Hoffmann, Hunnius,held that nothing is clearly revealed as to
the fate of such infants, and thev must beleft to the judgment of God. (3) Some ofthese, like Ilunnius, were inclined to believe
that they will be saved. (4) Others, with
more (like Hoffmann) or less (like Gerhard)
clearness, were rather inclined to believe
they will be lost ; but all alike held that the
means for a certain decision are not in our
hands.* Thus Hunnius says :f That the
infants of Gentiles, outside the Church, aresaved, Ave cannot pronounce as certain, since
there exists nothing definite in the Scrip-
tures concerning the matter ; so neither do
I dare simply to assert that these children
are indiscriminately damned. . . . Let us
commit them, therefore, to the judgment of
God. And Hoffmann says:J;
On thequestion, whether the infants of the heathen
nations are lost, most of our theologians pre-
fer to suspend their judgment. To affirm
as a certain thing that they are. lost couldnot be done without rashness.
This cautious agnostic attitude has the
best right to be called the historical Lu-
theran attitude. It is even the highest posi-
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IN FA XT SALVATION. 31
tion thoroughly consistent with the geniusof the Lutheran system and the stress which
it lays on the means of grace. The drift in
more modern times has, however, been de-
cidedly in the direction of affirming the sal-
vation of all that die in infancy, on grounds
identical with those pleaded by this party
from the beginning the infinite mercy ofGod, the universality of the atonement, the
inability of infants to resist grace, their
guiltlessness of despising the ordinance, and
the like.* Even so, however, careful mod-ern Lutherans moderate their assertions.
They may affirm that it is not the doc-
trine of our Confession that any humancreature has ever been or ever will be lost
purely for original sin ; f but they speak of
the matter as a dark or a difficult ques-
tion/' \ and suspend the salvation of such
infants on an ''extraordinary and un-
covenanted exercise of God's mercy. Wecannot rise to a conviction or a faith in
the matter, but may attain to a ' well-grounded hope/' based on our apprehension
of God's all-embracing mercy. || In short,
the Lutheran doctrine seems to lay no firm
* Compare the statements in Cotta and Kraxtth, locc. citt.
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'12 THE DOCTRINE OF
foundation for a conviction of the salvation
of all infants dying in infancy ; at the best
it is held to leave open an uncontradicted
hope. We are afraid we must say more ; itseems to contradict this hope. For should
this hope prove true, it would no longer be
true that baptism is necessary to salva-tion/' even ordinarily ; the exception would
be the rule. Nor would the fundamentalconception of the Lutheran theory of salva-
tion that grace is' in the means of gracebe longer tenable. The logic of the Lu-theran system leaves little room for the salva-
tion of all infants dying in infancy, and if
their salvation should prove to be a fact, the
integrity of the system is endangered.
5. A similar difficulty is experienced byall types of Protestant thought in which theolder idea of the Church, as primarily an
external body, has been incompletely re-
formed. This may be illustrated, for ex-ample, from the history of thought in the
Church of England. The Thirty-nine Ar-
ticles, in their final form, are thoroughly
Protestant and Reformed. And many ofthe greatest English theologians, even amongthose not most closely affiliated with Geneva,
from the very earliest days of the Reforma-
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INFANT SALVATION. 33
fants dying unbaptized. But this repudia-tion was neither immediate, nor has it ever
been universal. The second of the TenArticles of Henry VIII. (1536) not only de-
clares that the promise of grace and eternal
life is adjoined to baptism, but adds that in-
fants'
' by the sacrament of baptism do also
obtain remission of their sins, the grace and
favor of God, and be made thereby the very
sons and children of God ; insomuch as in-fants and children dying in their infancy
shall undoubtedly be saved thereby, and elsenot.
'' The first liturgy embodied the same
implication. The growing Protestant senti-
ment soon revised it out of these standards.*
But there have never lacked those in the
Church of England who still taught thenecessity of baptism to salvation. If it can
boast of a John Hooper, who speaks of the
ungodly opinion that attributeth the salva-
tion of men unto the receiving of an ex-ternal sacrament/' as though the Holy
Spirit could not be carried by faith intothe penitent and sorrowful conscience ex-
cept it rid always in a chariot and external
sacrament, and who (probably first after
Zwingli) taught that all infants dying in in-
h
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34 THE DOCTRINE OF
fidels, are saved ;* it also has counted amongits teachers many who held with MatthewScrivener that Christ's death and passion
are not communicated unto any but by out-
ward signs and sacraments/' so that either
all children must be damned, being unbap-
tized, or they must have baptism. f Thegeneral position of the Church up to his day
is thus conceived by Wall ij The Churchof England have declared their sense of its
[i.e., baptism's] necessity by reciting the say-
ing of our Saviour, Johniii.
5, bothin the
Office of Baptism of Infants and also in that
for those of riper years. . . . Concern-
ing the everlasting state of an infant that
by misfortune dies unbaptized, the Church
of England has determined nothing (it were
fit that all churches would leave such things
to God) save that they forbid the ordinary
Office for Burial to be used for such an one ;for that were to determine the point and
acknowledge him for a Christian brother.
And tho' the most noted men in thesaid
Church from time to time since the Eefor-
mation of it to this time have expressed their
hopes that God will accept the purpose of
* An Answer to My Lord of Winchester's Book, etc., 1547, in
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INFANT SALVATION. 35
the parent for the deed ; yet they have doneit modestly and much as Wycliffe did, rathernot determining the negative than absolutely
determining the positive, that such a child
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.' y
I f this is all that can be said of the children
of the faithful, lacking baptism, where will
those of the infidel appear ? Many otheropinions more Protestant or more Pelagianhave, of course, found a home for them-selves in the bosom of this most inclusive
cummunion, but they are no more charac-teristic of its teaching than that of Wall.
It is only needful to remember that there are
still many among the clergy of the Churchof England who, retaining the old, unre-
formed view of the Church, still believe that the relationship of sonship to God isimparted through baptism and is not im-
parted without it ; * though, of course,
many others, and we hope still a large ma-jority, would repudiate this position as in-
credible.
6. It was among the Reformed alone thatthe newly recovered scriptural apprehension
of the Church to which the promises were
given, as essentially not an externally or-
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INFANT SALVATION. 39
this view.* It has more lately become theruling view, and we may select AugustusTopladyf and Robert S. Candlish as its types.
The latter, for example, writes :{ In manyways I apprehend it may be inferred fromScripture that all dying in infancy are elect,
and are, therefore, saved. . . . Thewhole analogy of the plan of saving mercy
seems to favor the same view, and now itmay be seen, if I am not greatly mistaken,to be put beyond question by the bare fact
thatlittle children die. . . . The deathof little children must be held to be one of
the fruits of redemption. . . . 2. Atthe opposite extreme a very few held that
the only sure sign of election is faith with
its fruits, and, therefore, we can have noreal ground of knowledge concerning the
fate of any infant ; as, however, God cer-tainly has his elect among them too, eachman can cherish the hope that his children
mirable caution, to imply that he believed some infants dying
such to be lost. See, e.g., his comment on Rom. v. 17, and histreatises against Pighius, Servetus, and Castellio. Dr. Schaffrepeatedly speaks of Bullinger as agreeing in this point withZwingli on what grounds we know not unless the note inCreeds of Christendom, i., 642, note 3, is intended to direct us to
the passages quoted by Laurence as such. But these passages
do not seem to support that opinion ; and in a diligent search in
Bullinger's works we find nothing to favor it and much to nega-
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40 THE DOCTRINE OF
are of theelect. Peter Martyr approaches
this sadly agnostic position (which was after-
ward condemned by the Synod of Dort),
writing : Neither am I to be thought topromise salvation to all the children of the
faithful which depart without the sacrament,
for if I should do so I might be counted
rash ; I leave them to be judged by the
mercy of God, seeing I have no certainty
concerning the secret election and predes-
tination ; but I only assert that those are
truly saved to whom thedivine election ex-
tends, although baptism does not intervene.
Just so, I hope well concerning infants of
this kind, because I see them born from
faithful parents ; and this thing has prom-
ises that are uncommon ; and although they
may not be general, quoad ovmes, yet whenI see nothing to the contrary it is right to
hope well concerning the salvation of such
infants. * The great body of Calvinists,
however, previous to the present century,
took their position betweenthese extremes.
3. Many held that faith and the promise
are sure signs of election, and accordingly
all believers and their children are certainly
saved ; but that the luck of faith and the
i ll sure sign of reproba
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INFANT SALVATION. 41
dying such, are equally certaiuly lost. Theyounger Spanheim, for example, writes : Confessedly, therefore, original sin is a
most just cause of positive reprobation.
Hence no one fails to see what we shouldthink concerning the children of pagans
dying in their childhood ; for unless weacknowledge salvation outside of God's cov-
enant and Church (like the Pelagians of
old, and with them Tertullian, Epiphanius,
Clement of Alexandria, of the ancients, and
of the moderns, Andradius, LudovicusVives, Erasmus, and not a few others,
against the whole Bible), and suppose that
all the children of the heathen, dying in in-
fancy, are saved, and that it would be a great
blessing to them if they should be smoth-
ered by the midwives or strangled in the
cradle, we should humbly believe that they
are justly reprobated by God on account ofthe corruption (labes) and guilt (renins)
derived to them by natural propagation.
Hence, too, Paul testifies (Rom. v. 14) thatdeath has passed upon them which have not
sinned after the similitude of Adam's trans-
gression, and distinguishes and separates
(1 Cor. vii. 14) the children of the cove-
f i h ld f
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42 THE DOCTRINE OF
the promise are certain signs 01 election, sothat the salvation of believers' children is
certain, while the lack of the promise only
leaves us in ignorance of God's purpose ;
nevertheless that there is good ground for
asserting that both election and reprobation
have place in this unknown sphere. Ac-cordingly they held that all the infants of
believers, dying such, are saved, but that
some of the infants of unbelievers, dying
such, are lost. Probably no higher expres-
sion of this general view can be found thanJohn Owen's. He argues that there are twoways in which God saves infants : (1) byinteresting them in the covenant, if their
immediate or remote parents have been be-
lievers. He is a God of them and of theirseed, extending his mercy to a thousand
generations of them that fear him ;* (2) by
his grace of election which is most free and
not tied to any conditions, by which I make
no doubt but God taketh many unto him in
Christ whose parents never knew or hadbeen despisers of the Gospel. \ 5. Most
Calvinists of the past, however, have simply
held that faith and the promise are marks
by which we may know assuredly that all
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INFANT SALVATION. 43
those who believe and their children, dyingsuch, are elect and saved, while the absence
of sure marks of either election or reproba-
tion in infants, dying such outside the cov-
enant, leaves us without ground for inference
concerning them, and they must be left tothe judgment of God, which, however hid-
den from us, is assuredly just and holy and
good. This agnostic view of the fate of un-
covenanted infants has been held, of course,
in conjunction with every degree of hope or
the lack of hope concerning them, and thusin the hands of the several theologians it
approaches each of the other views, except,
of course, the second, which separates itself
from the general Calvinistic attitude by
allowing a place for reprobation even amongbelievers' infants, dying such. Petrus de
Witte may stand for one example. Hesays : We must adore God's judgmentsand not curiously inquire into them. Of
the children of believers it is not to be doubt-
ed but that they shall be saved, inasmuch asthey belong unto the covenant. But be-
cause we have no promise of the children ofunbelievers we leave them to the judgment
of God. * Matthew Henry f and our ownJ th Di ki may l stand as
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INFANT SALVATION. 45
ber of it held as his private opinion thatthere are such infants ; and the certainly-
very shrewd but scarcely sincere methods
of the Remonstrants in shifting the form
in which this question came before the
synod were very irritating. But the fa-
thers of Dort, with truly Reformed loyal-
ty to the positive declarations of Scrip-
ture, confined themselves to a clear testi-
mony to the positive doctrine of infant sal-vation and a repudiation of the calumnies
of the Remonstrants, without a word of neg-ative inference. Since we are to judge
of the will of God from his Word/' they say, which testifies that the children of believ-
ers are holy, not by nature, but in virtue of
the covenant of grace in which they to-
gether with their parents are comprehended,
godly parents have no reason to doubt of the
election and salvation of their children
whom it pleaseth God to call out of this lifein their infancy (Art. XVII. ). Accord-
ingly they repel in the Conclusion thecalumny that the Reformed teach ' that
many children of the faithful are torn guilt-
less from their mothers' breasts and tyran-
nically plunged into hell. * It is easy to
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46 THE DOCTRINE OF
say that nothing is here said of the childrenof any but the godly and of the faith-
ful ; this is true ; and therefore it is not
implied (as is so often thoughtlessly asserted)
that the contrary of what is here asserted
is true of the children of the ungodly ; but
nothing is taught of them at all. It is moreto the purpose to observe that it is asserted
that the children of believers, dying such, are
saved ; and that this assertion is an ines-
timable advance on that of the Council of
Trent and that of the Augsburg Confessionthat baptism is necessary to salvation. It is
the confessional doctrine of the Keformed
churches and of the Reformed churches
alone, that all believers' infants, dying in in-
fancy, are saved.
What has been said of the Synod ofDort may be repeated of the Westmin-ster Assembly. The Westminster divineswere generally at one iu the matter of
infant salvation with the doctors of Dort,
tia, in Opp. ed., Amst, viii., pp. 644-45). The underlying con-ception that God condemns infants to eternal death seems to beCalvin's ; but the mode of expression is Calvin's reducfio adabsurdum (or rather ad blasphemiam) of Castellio's opinions.Nevertheless the Remonstrants allowed themselves in their
polemic zeal to apply the whole sentiment to the orthodox,
and that, even in a still more sharpened form viz., with
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INFANT SALVATION. 47
but, like them, they retrained from any de-liverance as to its negative side. That deathin infancy does not prejudice the salvation
of God's elect they asserted in the chapter
of their Confession which treats of the ap-plication of Christ's redemption to his
people : All those whom God hath pre-destined unto life, and those only, he is
pleased, in his appointed and accepted time,
effectually to call, by his word and Spirit,. . . so as they come most freely, being
made willing by his grace. . . . Electinfants dying in infancy are regenerated and
saved by Christ, through the Spirit whoworketh when, and where, and how hepleaseth. * With this declaration of theirfaith that such of God's elect as die in in-
fancy are saved by his own mysterious work-ing in their hearts, although incapable of
the response of faith, they were content.
; h'tstminster Confessionof Faith,~K.., i. and iii. The opinionthat a body of non-elect infants dying in infancy and not saved isimplied in this passage, although often controversially asserted,
is not only a wholly unreasonable opinion exegetically, but is ab-solutely negatived by the history of the formation of this clausein the Assembly as recorded in the Minutes, and has never foundfavor among the expositors of the Confession. David Dick-son's (1684) treatment of the section shows that he understandsit to be directed against the Anabaptists ; and all careful stu-dents of the Confession understand it as above, including Shaw,
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INFANT SALVATION. 49
preted. As these several types diif er only inthe replies they offer to the subordinate ques-
tion, there is no revolution involved in
passing from one to the other ; and as in thelapse of time the balance between themswings this way or that, it can only be truly
said that there is advance or retrogression,not in fundamental conception, but in the
clearness with which details are read andwith which the outline of the doctrine is
filled up. In the course of time the agnostic
view of the fate of uncovenanted infants,
dying such, has given place to an ever-grow-
ing universality of conviction that these in-
fants too are included in the election of
grace ; so that to day few Calvinists can be
found who do not hold with Toplady, and
Doddridge, and Thomas Scott, and JohnNewton, and James P. Wilson, and NathanL. Rice, and Robert J. Breckinridge, andRobert S. Candlish, and Charles Hodge, andthe whole body of those of recent years
whom the Calvinistic churches delight tohonor, that all who die in infancy are thechildren of God and enter at once into hisglory not because original sin alone is notdeserving of eternal punishment (for all areborn children of wrath), nor because they
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50 THE DOCTRINE OF
punishment, not freedom from all punish-
ment), nor because they die in infancy (for
that they die in infancy is not the cause but
the effect of God's mercy toward them), but
simply because God in his infinite love has
chosen them in Christ, before the founda-
tion of the world, by a loving foreordinationof them unto adoption as sons in Jesus
Christ. Thus, as they hold, the Eeformed
theology has followed the light of the Worduntil its brightness has illuminated all its
corners, and the darkness has fled away.
7. The most serious peril which the
orderly development of the Christian doc-
trine of the salvation of infants has had to
encounter, as men strove, age after age,more purely and thoroughly to apprehend
it, has arisen from the intrusion into Chris-tian thought of what we may, without lack
of charity, call the unchristian conception
of man's natural innocence. For the task
which was set to Christian thinking was to
obtain a clear understanding of God's re-
vealed purpose of mercy to the infants of a
guilty and wrath-deserving race. And thePelagianizing conception of the innocence
of human infancy, in however subtle a formpresented put the solution of the problem
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INFANT SALVATION. 51
Fathers cut the knot with the facile formulathat infantile innocence, while not deserving
of supernatural reward, was yet in no dan-ger of being adjudged to punishment. Wehave seen how in the more active hands ofPelagius and his companions, as part of agreat unchristian scheme, it menaced Chris-tianity itself, and was repelled only by thevigor and greatness of an Augustine. Wehave seen how the same conception, creep-ing gradually into the Latin Church in the
milder form of semi-Pelagianism, lulled herheart to sleep with suggestions of less and
less ill- desert for original sin, until she neg-
lected the problem of infant salvation
altogether and comforted herself with a con-
stantly attenuating doctrine of infant pun-
ishment. If infants are so well off without
Christ, there is little impulse to consider
whether they may not be in Christ.The Eeformed churches could not hope
to work out the problem free from menace
from the perennial enemy. Thecrisis
camein the form of the Remonstrant controversy.
The anthropology of the Remonstrants wasdistinctly semi- Pelagian, and on that basis
no solid advance was possible. Nor was thematter helped by their postulation of a uni
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52 THE DOCTRINE OF
may have verylittle to be saved from, but
their salvation from even it cannot be
wrought by an atonement which only pur-
chases for them the opportunity for salva-
tion an opportunity of which they cannotavail themselves, however much the natural
power of free choice is uninjured by the fall,
for the simple reason that they die infants ;
while God cannot be held to make them,without their free choice, partakers of this
atonement without an admission of that
sovereigndiscrimination
among menwhich
it was the very object of the whole Remon-strant theory to exclude. It is not strange
that the Remonstrants looked with some
favor on the Romish theory of pcena damni.
Though the doctrine of the salvation of allinfants dying in infancy became one of their
characteristic tenets, it had no logical basis
in their scheme of faith, and their proclama-
tion of it could have no direct eifect in
working out the problem. Indirectly it
had a twofold effect. On the one hand,it
retarded the true course of the development
of doctrine, by leading those who held fastto biblical teaching on original sin and par-
ticular election, to oppose the doctrine of the
l ti f ll d ing i infancy if were
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INFANT SALVATION. 53
united in affirming that some infants, dyingsuch, are reprobated, as in the height of the
Remonstrant controversy. On the otherhand, so far as the doctrine of the salvation
of all infants, dying such, was accepted by
the anti-Remonstrants, it tended to bring in
with it, in more or less measure, the other
tenets with which it was associated in their
teaching, and thus to lead men away from
the direct path along which alone the solu-
tion was to be found. Wesleyan Arminian-
ism brought only an amelioration, not athoroughgoing correction of the faults of
Remonstrantism. The theoretical postu-
lation of original sin and natural inability,
corrected by the gift to all men of agracious ability on the basis of universal
atonement in Christ, was a great advance.
But it left the salvation of infants dying
in infancy logically as unaccounted for
as original Remonstrantism. Ex liypothesi,the universal atonement could bring to these
infants only what it brought to all others,and this was something short of salvation
viz., an ability to improve the grace given
alike to all. But infants, dying such, can-
not improve grace ; and therefore, it would
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54 THE DOCTRINE OF
at once of the whole Arminiancontention.
The assertion of the salvation of all infantsdying in infancy, although a specially dear
tenet of Wesleyau Arminianism, remains
therefore, as with the earlier Remonstrants,
unconformable to the system. The Arminiandifficulty, indeed, lies one step further back ;it does not make clear how any infant dyingin infancy is to be saved.*
The truth seems to be that there is butone logical outlet for any system of doctrine
which suspends the determination of who areto be saved upon any action of man's own will,whether in the use of gracious or natural
ability (that is, of course, if it is unwilling
to declare infants, dying such, incapable of
salvation); and that lies in the extension of
the day of grace for such into the other
world. Otherwise, there will inevitably be
brought in covertly, in the salvation of in-
fants, that very sovereignty of God, irre-
* The prevailing view in the Methodist Episcopal Church is
probably that infants are all born justified. The difficulties of
this view are hinted by a not unfriendly hand in The Cumber-
land Presbyterian Review for January, 18 )0, p. 113. The best
that can be said toward placing the dying infant in the same
essential gracious position as that into which the justified
and regenerate adult is brought by voluntary faith,11 may
be read from Dr. D. D. Whedon's pen in The Methodist
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INFANT SALVATION. 55
sistible grace and passive receptivity, to denywhich is the whole raison d'etre of these
schemes. There are indications that this is
being increasingly felt among those who are
most concerned ; we have noted it most re-
cently among the Cumberland Presbyte-
rians,* who, perhaps alone of Christian de-
nominations, have embodied in their confes-
sion their conviction that all infants, dying
such, are saved. The theory of a probation
in the other world for such as have had in
this no such probation as to secure fromthem a decisive choice has come to us from
Germany, and bears accordingly a later
Lutheran coloring. Its roots are, however,
planted in the earliest Lutheran thinking, f
and are equally visible in the writings of the
early Remonstrants ; its seeds are present, in
fact, wherever man's salvation is causally
suspended on any act of his own. But the
outcome offered by it certainly affords no
good reason for affirming that all infants,
dying such, are saved. It is not uncommon,indeed, for the advocates of this theory to
suppose the present life to be a more favor-
able opportunity for moral renewal in Christ
i J l 369 f
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56 THE DOCTRINE OF
than the next.* Some, no doubt, think
otherwise. Bat in either event what can as-
sure us that all will be so reneAved ? We areready to accept the subtle argument in Dr.
Kedney's valuable work, Christian Doctrine
Harmonized, \ as the best that can be said in
the premises ; for although Dr. Kedney de-nies the theory of future probation in
general, he shares the general ethical view
on which it is founded, and projects the sal-
vation of infants dying in infancy into the
next world on the express ground that they
are incapable of choice here. He assures usthat they will surely welcome the knowl-
edge of God's love in Christ there. But we
miss the grounds of assurance, on the funda-
mental postulates of the scheme. If the
choice of these infants, while it remains free,can be made thus certain there, why not thesame for all men here f And if their choiceis thus made certain, is their destiny deter-
mined by their choice, or by God who makesthat choice certain ? Assuredly no thor-
oughfare is open along this path for a con-
sistent doctrine of the salvation of all those
that die in infancy. But this seems the
only pathway that is consistently open to
those, of whatever name, who make man's
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INFANT SALVATION. 57
ownundetermined act the
determining fac-tor in his salvation.*
8. The drifts of doctrine which have comebefore us in this rapid sketch may be reducedto three generic views. 1. There is whatmay be called the ecclesiastical doctrine, ac-cording to which the Church, in the senseof an outwardly organized body, is set as thesole fountain of salvation in the midst of a
lost world ; the Spirit of God and eternallife are its peculiar endowments, of whichnone can partake save through
communionwith it. Accordingly to all those departingthis life in infancy, baptism, the gateway tothe Church, is the condition of salvation.
2. There is Avhat may be called the graciousdoctrine, according to which the visible
Church is not set in the world to determineby the gift of its ordinances who are to besaved, but as the harbor of refuge for the
saints, to gather into its bosom those whomGod himself in his infinite love has selectedin Christ Jesus before the foundation of the
world in whom to show the wonders of hisgrace. Men accordingly are not saved be-
* The Rev. D. Fisk Harris, himself a Congregationalminister (Calvinism Contrary to God's Word and Man's Mor-al Nature, p. 107), tells us that a view not essentially differing
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58 THE DOCTRINE OF
cause they are baptized, but they are bap-tized because they are saved, and the
failure of the ordinance does not argue
the failure of the grace. Accordingly to
all those departing this life in infancy,
inclusion in God's saving purpose alone
is the condition of salvation ; we may beable to infer this purpose from manifest
signs, or we may not be able to infer it,but in any case it cannot fail. 3. There is
what may be called the humanitarian doc-
trine, according to which the determiningcause of man's salvation is his own freechoice, under whatever variety of theories
as to the source of his power to exercise this
choice, or the manner in which it is exercis-
ed. Accordingly whether one is saved or not
is dependent not on baptism or on inclusion
in God's hidden purpose, but on the decisive
activity of the soul itself.
The first of these doctrines is character-istic of the earlv, the mediaeval, and the
Koman churches, not without echoes in thosesections of Protestantism which love to think
of themselves as more historical or less
radically reformed than the rest. The secondis the doctrine of the Reformed churches.
Th d h
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INFANT SALVATION. 59
si on and a later correction of the same basaldoctrine. The phrase extra ecclesiam nulla
sal us is the common property of both ; theydiffer only in their understanding of the* *' ecclesia, whether of the visible or in-
visible church. The third doctrine, on
the other hand, has cropped out ever and
again in every age of the Church, has dom-
inated whole sections of it and whole ages,
but has never, in its purity, found expression
in any great historic confession or exclusively
characterized any age. It is, in fact, not asection of Church doctrine at all, but an in-
trusion into Christian thought from with-
out. In its purity it has always and in all
communions been accounted heresy ; and
only as it has been more or less modified and
concealed among distinctively Christian ad-
juncts has it ever made a position for itself
in the Church. Its fundamental conception
is the antipodes of that of the other doc-
trines.
The first step in the development of thedoctrine of infant salvation was taken when
the Church laid the foundation which from
the beginning has stood firm, Infants too are
lost members of a lost race, and only thoseI
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( >0 THE DOCTRINE OF
the path. All that are brought to him inbaptism, was its answer. Long ages passedbefore the second step was taken in the cor-rect definition. The way was prepared in-deed by Augustine's doctrine of grace, bywhich salvation was made dependent on thedealings of God with the individual heart.But his eyes were h olden that he shouldnot see it. It was reserved to Zwingli toproclaim it clearly, All the elect children ofGod, ivho are regenerated by the Spirit who
worheth when, and where, and how he pleas-eth. The sole question that remains is,Who of those that die in infancy are theelect children of God ? Tentative answerswere given. The children of God's people,said some. The children of God's people,with such others as his love has set upon tocall, said others. All those that die in in-
fancy said others still ; and to this reply Re-formed thinking and not Reformed thinkingonly, but in one way or another, logically
or illogically, the thinking of the Christianworld has been converging. Is it the Scrip-
tural answer ? It is as legitimate and aslogical an answer as any, on Reformed postu-lates. It is legitimate on no other postu-
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INFANT SALVATION. 61
infant salvation is already taken. .But if it
stand, it can stand on no other theologicalbasis than the Reformed. If all infantsdying in infancy are saved, it is certain thatthey are not saved by or through theordinances of the visible
Church(for
theyhave not received them), nor through theirown improvement of a grace common to allmen (for they are incapable of activity) ; itcan only be through the almighty operationof the Holy Spirit who worketh when andwhere and how he pleaseth, through whoseineffable grace the Father gathers these lit-tle ones to the home he has prepared forthem.
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